Mini Update with Lots of Pictures

Tessa's going to have a little sister! And as of right now she's quite excited about that, we'll see how much that changes when the baby has arrived.

Tessa is becoming a "big kid" more and more these days. A few weeks ago we stopped giving her milk in a bottle, she hasn't had milk since...oh well at some point she'll drink it, and if not there's always yogurt, cheese, and oj with calcium. She is also in the process of being potty trained. She understands keeping her undies dry, and for the most part when we are home has no problem going on the potty. If she's asleep, or we're out things are less reliable. However she does LOVE to go potty at the gym, the pool, and anywhere else she sees/hears big kids are going potty. She doesn't often say she needs to go, but if she is put on the potty 9 times out of 10 she goes. The other big news here is that her "bubbas" (pacifiers) were officially taken away yesterday. She was less than thrilled and showed me just how upset she was by screaming for 15 minutes, sleeping for 40, and then screaming some more. Today seems to be going better, so hopefully in a week or so "bubbas" will be a thing of the past.

Tessa is very excited to start school when she turns 2! Actually she doesn't start til Sept 14th, but I keep telling her when she's 2 she'll go to school. I was really looking forward to buying her a backpack, but her school requests "open top tote bags" so I guess thats what I'll be getting.

She has learned most of her letters, only gets confused by U/V and for whatever reasons has a hard time remembering G. She loves to point to signs and call out the letters in the words, most of the time they are not in the right order but we're working on that. She knows some of her numbers, but that is still a work in progress.

It is amazing how much she learns in a just a week. She is a little chatter box who loves to repeat everything we say. Luckily none of which has been bad...

And now for some recent pictures.
Max, Connor, Rylan, Olivia, and Tessa on Connor's last day in Baltimore :(

Dancing at Belvedere Square with Rylan, having so much fun!

Petting Zoo with Daddy (where her birthday party will be)

Loving the pony ride, hopefully everyone that comes to her birthday will love it too!

Getting her toes painted "pretty pink"

Tessa's 2nd Birthday Party Invitation

Feeding the goats at the zoo in CT near Gran
Squatting like uncle Kevin
Riding the Merry Go Round with Daddy - a constant topic of conversation

Hitting the baseball into the pool

Watching Mickey with Uncle Dan

Giving Grampa his birthday card

Really concentrating on writing/drawing with Uncle Dan

Grampa joins in and draws a rainbow for Tessa

Somersaults and Silly Faces

Outer Banks Family Trip

We were very lucky this year to be able to rent a house on the Outer Banks. Nana, Mimi, Pop, and Granpa all joined us. The house was a short walk from the beach, and had a pool in the backyard.

Tessa woke up after the first night with a tick on her head...not exactly what you want to have happen. Luckily it wasn't in deep and it was easily removed. We were pretty sure it came from playing on the cool swingset/castle in the backyard. So needless to say she didn't get to play out there much. Which didn't really matter since once the temps reached the mid-90s no one wanted to stand outside with her and let her play.

There were many trips to the beach, and the pool. Tessa enjoyed lots and lots of freeze pops. And more attention than any one child needs.

Everyone had a good time.

Pictures